So, the real question is, how do we design filters that let us find our way through this particular abundance of information? And, you know, my answer to that question has been: the only group that can catalog everything is everybody. One of the reasons you see this enormous move towards social filters, as with Digg, as with del.icio.us, as with Google Reader, in a way, is simply that the scale of the problem has exceeded what professional catalogers can do. But, you know, you never hear twenty-year-olds talking about information overload because they understand the filters they’re given. You only hear, you know, forty- and fifty-year-olds taking about it, sixty-year-olds talking about because we grew up in the world of card catalogs and TV Guide. And now, all the filters we’re used to are broken and we’d like to blame it on the environment instead of admitting that we’re just, you know, we just don’t understand what’s going on.
Martha Hickson on 05 May 13The more students read, the better they'll read So, why limit their reading to a pre-set reading level with limited titles available? Students need opportunities to read easy books to build fluency - This is ratified in Appendix A, Page 9, of the CCSS standards. We shouldn't have to define what level they should read at -- whether easy or hard -- for independent reading. Students need experience reading complex text to improve their ability to decode meaning when they encounter difficult material - This is based on the research of Marilyn Jager Rand, PhD. Brown University Students will shift from easy --> hard material if it's on a subject of their interest. - So let them choose what they want and their innate curiosity will compel them to read and achieve understanding, thus raising their reading ability. Students need curiosity to inspire reading. They will either have natural curiosity or stirred up curiosity (stirred up by the educator) Students need a reason to read that is not about 'assignment' - a quest for knowledge or an answer to find.
